1. Field
The following description generally relates to an air purifying apparatus using microwaves, and more particularly to an air purifying apparatus, which is installed in a duct where air flows, and removes contaminants by burning contaminated air while passing the contaminated air through a filter heated by microwaves.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most homes or businesses are provided with basic ventilation systems to forcibly remove indoor contaminated air to the outside. More specifically, a range hood mounted above a cooking counter or a ventilator mounted on a ceiling or a wall draws in contaminated air and releases the air to the outside through a duct where air flows.
In such duct, an air purifying apparatus is installed, in which multiple-plate filters such as a prefilter, a carbon filter, a HEPA filter, or the like are sequentially arranged to remove dust, soot, odor, and the like contained in the indoor air. However, as can be seen from the air purifying apparatus, which includes various filters, such filter-type air purifying apparatus installed in a conventional duct tends to put a bigger emphasis on filtering polluted materials such as dust, and thus, it is not suitable for purifying odor, soot, bacteria, and the like contained in polluted air. Further, the filter-type purifying apparatus increases maintenance costs, as filters are needed to be cleaned and replaced on a regular basis, and if not properly cleaned, the filters may not purify air efficiently.
In order to solve the above problems, utility model patent No. 20-365713 discloses a combustible dust collector, in which a combustion heater for burning dust, odor, and the like, and a water tank for filtering burned ashes are installed.
However, the collector also has problems in that a combustion heater, which is heated by electric heat of heat wires, loses heat to the outside, such that combustion efficiency may be reduced and safety may not be guaranteed. Further, in such collector, the combustion heater is not precisely structured, and due to a short length of stay in the combustion heater, contaminated air does not stay long enough to be burned properly, such that filtering efficiency may be reduced. In addition, a water tank for filtering burned ashes may not be installed in a limited space, leading to an increased cost of initial installation, and it would be cumbersome to regularly maintain the water tank.